Rick Orlov

Staff Writer

Recent articles

Local governments

The Los Angeles Fire Department must overhaul the way it recruits and processes candidates if it is to be more effective in the city and fair to its recruits, the RAND Corp. said Thursday.A long-awaited report, prepared by the Santa Monica think tank after a three-month study of the LAFD in the summer, found major changes are needed to make the system more transparent, including a greater effort to attract more women and minorities.Among other things, findings confirm there are...

Airport operation

A major contract covering 25 percent of the Los Angeles International Airport modernization plan was approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council in what one member described as destroying the myths around the airport.“There is not one of us who haven’t been embarrassed by what we see at LAX,” said Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents the area. “There have been myths that Los Angeles would not invest in the airport. Myths that NIMBYs were blocking...

Earthquakes

Twenty-one years later, the political and policy aftershocks of the Northridge Earthquake are still being felt.“It wasn’t that big of an earthquake and the deaths were not that great,” said Lucy Jones, the U.S. Geological Service seismologist who just ended a year on assignment with Mayor Eric Garcetti to study how to prepare Los Angeles for the next big earthquake.“But it is the one everyone looks to,” Jones said. “It served to make...

Politics

Ending months of speculation, Sen. Barbara Boxer announced Thursday she will not run for re-election in 2016, setting off a firestorm of rumors of potential successors.Boxer, 74, in a video interview with her grandson, Zach Rodham, said neither her age nor Republican control of the Senate played a role in her...

Summer Olympic games

The two-year dream of Los Angeles to recapture the spirit of the 1984 Olympic Games ended Thursday when Boston was selected as the U.S. nominee to host the 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.Following a meeting in Denver, U.S. Olympic Committee officials said Boston stands a better chance of being selected by the International Olympic Committee to host the 2024 event.In addition to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., had submitted bids for the...

Residential fires

Standing at the site of a North Hollywood house that caught fire from a dry Christmas tree, Mayor Eric Garcetti and Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas on Tuesday reminded residents that now is the time to dispose of the holiday trees.The trees, particularly after several weeks of cold temperatures, could be drier than normal as residents turned up their house...

Law enforcement agencies

With about a month on the job, Sheriff Jim McDonnell said this week he is actively looking at a plan that would reduce or eliminate the need for new deputies to work in the jails as a way to improve recruitment and reduce violence.“We are rethinking our policies,” McDonnell said during radio program Tuesday morning. “We are looking at a dual track system where we recruit and hire deputies who want to be in the custody division rather than hire everyone to be field...

Police

James Beyea had been a Los Angeles Police Department patrol officer for only three months in June 1988 when he was sent to a burglary call in North Hollywood.There, he confronted two teenagers, who turned out to be gang members, trying to steal goods from a stereo shop. A fight developed and one of the suspects, Robert Steele, 16, took Beyea’s gun and killed him.Four hours later, Steele was shot and killed by police in the attic of an abandoned home.Even though...

Theft

Calling it one of the largest art theft cases in recent history, Los Angeles and federal investigators on Friday displayed nine paintings worth more than $12 million that were stolen from an Encino home and sought the public’s help in recovering additional works and in the prosecution of a suspect.An investigation that included mysterious tips from Europe and an undercover operation at a West Los Angeles hotel resulted in the arrest of Raul Espinoza, 45, who authorities said...

Local governments

City Attorney Mike Feuer on Thursday announced a program designed to protect immigrants from scam artists seeking money for filling out forms required under President Obama’s new executive order on immigration.“There was an article where a deputy in my office said these scammers are not just taking money, they are stealing their dreams,” Feuer said at a City Hall news conference of those impacted by false promises. “No one should have their dreams...